Tekken Tag Tournament (鉄拳タッグトーナメント,Tekken Taggu Tōnamento?, lit. Iron Fist Tag Tournament) is an update of Tekken 3 and is the fourth installment in the Tekken fighting game series. It is not canonical to the Tekken storyline however. The game was originally available as an update kit for Tekken 3.

Tekken Tag Tournament was first released in arcades and was later ported to the PlayStation 2. The arcade version operated similarly, but ran on a 32-bit graphics engine like Tekken 3. It received upgraded graphics when it was ported to the home system. Tekken Tag Tournament is one of the two games in the series to be released in an alternate cover.

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Gameplay

Tekken Tag Tournament was notable for having the largest character roster in the series up to that point, boasting a total of 39 playable characters. 37 characters return from previous installments in the series, and two new characters, Tetsujin, a costume swap of Mokujin, and Unknown, the boss character in this game, were introduced. The most prominent feature is its tag system. A player selects two characters and may tag out between them to utilize special combos and throws. When in Team Battle mode, the fights are also tag fights unless there is one person left on a team where they will fight alone.

Tekken Tag Tournament included a mini-game called Tekken Bowl, that challenged the player to use a team of characters to play a bowling game. Depending on the player's selected character, different attributes would be placed into effect in the mini-game. For example, Bryan Fury has a powerful roll due to his super strength, and he can use a targeting system to make more accurate shots because of his cybernetic enhancements. A physically weaker character like Julia Chang would have a much less powerful strike, but would be easier to control when placing the spin and amount of force on the ball. Yoshimitsu also has a targeting ability, which can control how straight the ball goes, making him one of the easiest to control characters of Tekken Bowl.

Story

Tekken Tag Tournament is a non-canon game which means it has no storyline. According to Namco, it brought back the characters that did not return to Tekken 3: Baek Doo San, Bruce Irvin, Jun Kazama, and Kunimitsu. Their ages were still the same from the previous Tekken games. It is more of a compilation of the Tekken series giving fans the opportunity to play as almost every character in the series up to that point, including many of those that had apparently been killed off in the main Tekken storyline. Of all the returning characters, Kazuya Mishima was the most heavily promoted, as he was featured prominently on the game's cover art and promotional material.

Tekken Tag Tournament HD

Tekken Tag Tournament HD is a high-definition update to the original game. It was included in Tekken Hybrid and showcased enhanced graphics and included trophies. This HD re-release, however, removes the "1 on 1" single player and "1 on 1 VS" game modes from the PS2 version of Tekken Tag Tournament.

The first game since the original Tekken to have the same stage music in every character's ending. This is not the case with Unknown's ending, however, as she has different music in hers.

The last game where the character falls into the "arched back" animation once KO'ed while they were standing since Tekken 2, instead of standing KO'ed from Tekken 3.

In this game, all Tekken 3 characters gets an alternate version/color schemes of their Player 2 and Player 2 outfits.

Marshall Law is the only character missing from this game that would later return in the canonical games.

There are two differences between the models arcade and console versions:

Arcade version’s models remained based on original PlayStation era

Home version’s models has moveable facial expressions, in additions of having spectators and much more detailed 3D modeled stage backgrounds on certain stages too. This type of model is soon being carried and updated through out the later Tekken games.

The special case when fighting True Ogre is that the stage background in home version is no longer blank like in arcade version.

Unknown is the only character in the game to have a CGI ending (all other characters use the in-game graphics).

The chain throw combos seen in King's ending was later installed as an actual chain throw combo in Tekken 5.

The non-canonical premise of the game may have been inspired by SNK'sThe King of Fighters '98, which similarly ignored series canon for a "dream match" that brought back deceased and obsolete characters.

In before-battle poses, some characters will do things with/to their partner occasionally depending on the leader.

For example, when Paul and Kuma II are paired, whomever the leader is will do their special attack to the other (Kuma will do his Salmon Fishing move on Paul, and Paul will do his Phoenix Smasher move to Kuma's gut when Kuma is growling).

Heihachi will turn Lee over his knee and spank him if paired together.

Ling Xiaoyu is the only character in the game to have two endings. It is viewable by beating Arcade mode in her school girl outfit. Xiaoyu also has the most outfits with an additional secret green/orange costume, only obtainable by selecting her with a random select.

Screaming no longer echoes when a character is KO'd.

There are no replays after every round, but after Arcade mode, they show replays from the last round and the word "replay" now flashes on the top left of the screen instead of the top right. However, in Tekken Bowl, the word flashes on the bottom left except when a super strike occurs.

Health meters no longer load up before a fight begins.

The stages in this game are the exact same locations from Tekken 3, being set in a different time of day. For example, Lei Wulong's Hong Kong Street stage took place in the daytime in Tekken 3, but in this game, it takes place at nighttime.

Although he is not playable, Doctor Bosconovitch appears as a spectator in Tekken Bowl. He can be "KO'd" by throwing the ball away from the lane towards him, which counts as a miss.

In Tekken Bowl, pressing the X button when the shot power bar is at its absolute maximum will result in an "Over Charge." The character will hang onto the ball when throwing it, sending them sliding down the lane and crashing into the pins in a comedic fashion. This will count as a miss, and the message "Caution: Please do not try this at home" will display.